BT Copper finishing - what options have I

Robin9

My local roads are being dug up by a broadband supplier (not Open Reach). I currently have my broadband/phone by Talk Talk (FTTC) and  I am recently out of contract.

All very tempting when the rep called - low fibre rates, buy me out  TT contract

I have been enquiring of this supplier what happens about the phone - as they have to initiate the switch. They advise that if I want to keep a handset then there will a charge of over £150, (plus calls, min £8 pm) - I can have an app for £0 but that is not practical for my household needs.

I believe the Copper in my area is switched off in 2024. What happens to my TT - (or any other supplier I might go to ) ?

Rodders53

Come on Robin... you aren't a forum newbie...  The issue has been discussed on here many times.
Use the forum search.

SOME FTTP suppliers do 'digital voice' via a socket on the router/router modem that your current handsets can use.  It uses Voice over IP and has no battery backup (fixed for a time via a UPS).  So moblile phone backup / calls may be preferred.  Especially if one has a call-inclusive bundle.

Other FTTP suppliers don't do that. At all.  You can buy extra VoIP adapter boxes at a cost and subscribe at a cost to a VoIP provider.

Therefore choose potential suppliers carefully.  Read views and their customer forums.  Do your due diligence.
 
TT are a sometimes do, sometimes don't from what I've read (as they use Openreach and at least one other fibre provider). https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/How-Full-Fibre-is-installed/ta-p/2555166 may help (or not)?

littleboo

If Openreach aren't already building full fibre in your area now, then the copper won't be retired next year. By end of 2025 the analogue telephone network is due to be retired, that means a phone service will be delivered over the broadband connection and your phone would plug into a dedicated port on the router, if both services are coming from the same supplier.  However, the broadband in many areas will still be delivered using copper ( or example FTTC) when the analogue switch off occurs.
If this new supplier is charging you £150, it sounds like they would be providing new equipment, ie a VOIP phone.

iniltous

I suspect that this Alt Net hasn’t explained what’s available very well , or you have misunderstood.

This Alt Net may or may not provide a telephone service with their FTTP , they are not obliged to , and I would imagine that they may not bother with telephony at all , after all it is a very low margin business anyway and probably not worth the investment to provide it to their customers 

You obviously could keep your TT ‘line’ over the Openreach FTTC network exactly as you do now and simply add this Alt Net FTTP , but you would be paying for both .

I’ve no idea where this mysterious £150 charge plus  £8 / month comes from , it’s probably b*llocks .

Paying  for two broadband services, seems unnecessarily expensive  but TT ( AFAIK ) don’t ‘sell’ telephony without broadband, you could try to transfer from TT to another Openreach based supplier that does telephony only , but that may be difficult with the stop sell of WLR/PSTN products on Openreach.

If you want to leave FTTC and use this Alt Net ( obviously you could tell them you are not interested) the most obvious option is to transfer ( port )  your phone number to a third party VoIP provider, and use your Alt Net FTTP to access it , that may need you to buy  extra equipment and pay a VoIP provider in addition to the Alt Net , but by asking a VoIP provider to port the number from TT to themselves it should by default also cease the TT FTTC broadband , so you would should arrange it to be after the FTTP is in and working , otherwise you risk ending up with no service from anyone.

matelodave

I'd be very inclined to stay with TT until they decide what they are going to do. We've had fibre to the premises for around five years and digital voice, initially with BT and now with Vodafone for over two years. We do use the phone, mainly for incoming calls but are considering giving up paying the extra for anytime calls and just using it for incoming calls. We've both got mobiles which work where we live (on different networks to give us a bit of resilience.

It works, no hassles no drama and if we get a power cut (which we do more often than most) we lose our phone line for the duration.

The world doesn't stop when we get a power cut, However the lights go out, the heating shuts down, the telly goes off and we cant boil a kettle. TBH the least of our problems is a lack of a phone service whilst the leccy is off..

We'd use our mobiles if we felt an overwhelming need to call anyone during a power cut.

If I was really all that concerned I'd get a battery backed UPS but TBH its not worth it.

The newspapers, media and uninformed scare mongers have whipped everyone up into a frenzy about something that's trivial and wont materially affect most of the population.

brewerdave

matelodave said:

We'd use our mobiles if we felt an overwhelming need to call anyone during a power cut.

If I was really all that concerned I'd get a battery backed UPS but TBH its not worth it.

The newspapers, media and uninformed scare mongers have whipped everyone up into a frenzy about something that's trivial and wont materially affect most of the population.

Just one of the issues with the changeover is that not everyone has usable mobile service at their home !!

matelodave

brewerdave said:

matelodave said:

We'd use our mobiles if we felt an overwhelming need to call anyone during a power cut.

If I was really all that concerned I'd get a battery backed UPS but TBH its not worth it.

The newspapers, media and uninformed scare mongers have whipped everyone up into a frenzy about something that's trivial and wont materially affect most of the population.

Just one of the issues with the changeover is that not everyone has usable mobile service at their home !!

in which case your provider should help you solve the problem